Night Shift
by Xochiquetzai
Summary: Coffee Shop AU. Yao's new coworker Ivan tries to convince him, among other more personal things, to get serious about taking 'direct action' against their boss. [Rochu w/ some TaiViet. Other appearing characters: Mongolia and (in future chapters) Poland, Romania, Hungary, Prussia, Cuba and 'OCs' N. Korea, Ethiopia, Laos, Angola, PR Congo and Mozambique]
1. Knife

_Up til now this is the longest chapter I've ever written of fanfiction. I don't know if the following ones will be as long because I tend to stick to 1k words per chapter or a bit less. By the way, English is not my native language. Anyway, hope you like this and please review, or fav/follow if you like it!_

_Notes: I don't know if Lien Chung is actually the human name of Vietnam but I considered it to be. 'Mei' refers to Taiwan. Warnings for language, use of drugs (smoking) and mentions of sex._

* * *

**Nightshift**

**1. Knife**

There was someone else in the kitchen. Yao put the knife down on the wooden cutting board and almost rolled his eyes but he realised it was his boss. Even worse, it was.

"Yes?" he said before he could think of a better way to do it. He ground his teeth just after the word.

"Help Lien, no?" he said. Yao was about to tell him that he was doing his own work but he kept talking "By the way, recently I hired someone new, chances are you'll see him in a couple hours when we close."

"Okay" Yao answered, leaving the kitchen while keeping his sight on Lien who seemed to be putting some chairs up.

"It's a bit early for closing, don't you think?" he asked. She stared.

"We're not gonna get customers in this hours, you know how it goes." she said and looked around "Do you actually like to work or something?"

"Of course not" he whispered, putting a serious face on, and looked at where his boss was, to see him leaving "You know I don't like others having authority over me."

Lien Chung stared again and smiled while lifting her eyebrows, trying to make her sarcasm clear. "Really? Out of everyone, how could I know that?"

Yao sighed. "So do you want help with those chairs?"

"Please."

* * *

When half of the chairs were up over the tables and they still had to wait two hours to leave, Lien went to where Yao was sitting, which was on one of the outdoor seats. The wall there was between the inside and the outside of the shop was entirely a window, so it was easy to locate him. She sat opposite to him. He looked at her and smiled to her for a few seconds, which she didn't reciprocate.

"Can I have a cigarette?" she asked, joining her hands behind her back. He almost gasped, but just frowned at her.

"Since when do you smoke, young woman?" he asked, knowing that he probably sounded like he thought of himself as her father "Besides, how do you know I have any?"

She put a hand on her hip.

"Don't be stubborn, I've seen you smoke before."

He looked away as he really tried to remember when could she had possibly seen him. He rarely smoked at work, though he did bring a pack of cigarettes with him almost everyday.

"Come on, Yao." she said, leaving her previous position to cross her arms "If you don't want to, I can always ask our boss for one."

He rolled his eyes, and from the pocket on the apron that made the uniform, took out two cigarettes.

"You didn't answer my question." he said as he extended his arm to let her take one.

"Hm?" she saw him take out his lighter as she went through the conversation from a few moments ago. He lit her cigarette before his own. "Ah yes, it was very recently."

* * *

"Well we're halfway done" she said, and smiled after exhaling "Do you think I can convince the boss to let us go earlier?"

He exhaled harshly. "He won't. He let us go early once, and he said that'd be the last time."

"We lose nothing by trying once again."

He smiled bitterly. "You just want to go to your girlfriend's."

She laughed. "Of course I want to go with Mei. Maybe you'd be just as desperate to get out of work if you had a... comrade." while pronouncing the last word she made a half-smile and then put back the cigarette between her lips, only to take it out, wanting to say something.

Yao spoke before her. "I don't like to depend on others." He, instead of looking at her, tried to look at whatever was among the fog.

She looked at the sky in a way that made her look like she was rolling her eyes.

"Don't get me wrong" he said "I really would like to have someone who loves me and what have you."

"Yeah, alright. So do I tell boss to let us go or...?"

"Yes, go" he said. She gave her cigarette to him and went, almost running, to where their boss had been last seen.

After taking hers he started stubbing it out on the ashtray and kept smoking his own. He was really just wanting to avoid going back to his empty apartment, cook breakfast for himself and keep himself awake for an hour or two after getting into bed, as he always did. He almost felt jealous of Lien, she hadn't fallen into involuntary routine.

But the reason why he decided to let her try to get them home earlier was because he was actually feeling sleepy, and because work really wasn't much better than being at home. It was in fact much worse in almost all aspects, as is for almost everyone, but usually you don't really feel alone at work.

Lien was back.

"So?" he asked.

She crossed her arms.

"He laughed and told me to get the fuck back to work." she rested her hand on one of the chairs.

"At least I suppose we can be here?"

She shrugged, and undid the knot of the straps of her apron on her back. "Bet he's too busy counting his money to give a shit."

Again, he rushed to exhale. He smiled and let out a small 'huh', like a short laugh "Aw, are you angry because you can't go have sex with Mei yet?"

Lien was about to make clear how much she was insulted by the lack of discretion of his remark, but the shock of seeing someone approach the shop was much bigger.

"Wow" she whispered "I think someone is coming."

He turned around and, while he looked, his hand searched for the ashtray and stubbed the cigarette out. "No way."

Among the fog they both could see a large figure that seemingly was getting near them. As it got closer they saw it was a large, blond man. He wore a scarf and a long coat and stared at Yao while he started speaking.

"Hello" he showed his thick accent, smiling.

Lien and Yao looked at each other. Lien made a motion with her lips that read 'no way'. Yao looked at him.

"Ivan" he whispered. It wasn't a long time ago that they've seen each other, and in fact they did quite often, as they even lived pretty near each other.

"It's me, yes. I got a job." he smiled again while slightly squinting. He sat beside Yao and looked at both of them.

Ivan spoke again.

"Aren't you happy for me?" he put his hand over Yao's and looked at his face. He felt his face get hotter and he knew that Ivan could notice him blushing.

"Having to work is nothing to be happy about." he answered, and freed his hand from Ivan's.

"I know that very well, Yao." he said, as he tried to search for his hand again under the table "But we're going to be together!"

He didn't absolutely hate the idea, but his hopes were that his new co-worker would be someone new. He had pretty mixed feelings about the way Ivan treated him. He didn't know whether he wanted to continue the conversation for very long, but he had plenty of time.

"So you're going to work at the counter?" he asked as he moved his hand away from Ivan.

"Yes" he answered, and caught Yao's hand with both of his "Tomorrow we'll see each other again."

"Yeah" he said, looking away. Ivan was using his hands to caress the one he had caught. Yao still didn't look at him, and sighed.

"Don't you want to get inside? You must be cold." Ivan asked.

"Not really" he said "I wanted to take a break from being inside, actually."

"Well, I am going in" Lien said and smiled to herself after turning around.

"What for?" Yao asked.

"Eh.. I don't know. Washing the dishes or something" her voice became inaudible as she got further from them.

"Hmm..." Yao looked at her go and slowly slid his hand out of Ivan's and took off his hair tie with both his free hands. He was brushing his hair slightly with his fingers, closing his eyes. Ivan thought he could kiss him, but that'd be too much for Yao. He kept brushing his hair until he felt something in the way.

"You have very soft hair" Ivan said. Yao realised the blond had his fingers in his hair, and they were getting closer to his neck.

"Hey!" he exclaimed "You can't touch me just like that."

"How do you like to be touched, Yao?" he asked.

Thinking of an appropriate answer, he looked at his face. Ivan wasn't smiling. He was completely serious about the question.

"You don't have to touch me all the time."

Ivan smiled again. "Of course I don't have to but I really like to."

* * *

"Soon the customers will start coming." said Yao.

"Yes?" Ivan stared.

"Yeah, there's none at all between 4 and 6 a.m., but around six thirty or so they start to come."

"I guess those people really have their lives put together if they get ready for going to get coffee before 7"

"Most of them come here before going to work, so I guess it's normal they come so early." Yao said "The weird ones are those who come at three to tell you about the horror stories they read too late at night and won't let them bat an eyelash but end up feeling sleepy and going home by four."

Ivan continued staring at him.

"I guess I'll go prepare some snacks to put on the counter." Yao said.

"Ah yes, I'll go with you."

* * *

Upon entering Yao went to the kitchen directly and Ivan followed him. It was actually pretty small, and there was barely room for doing much more than baking. More than anything it was meant for storage, though it did have everything necessary.

"So this usually has more clients?" he asked.

Yao pulled out the ingredients, not looking at him at all. "Yeah. The day and evening shift get a lot more people. We get exactly the hours at which people come the least: 11 p.m. to 7 a.m."

"So you like to work in this shift?" the blond asked.

"Actually yes. I do prefer it, at least. You meet fewer, more interesting people I guess."

"You like working?" Ivan raised an eyebrow while asking.

"No!" he exclaimed, and continued in a whisper "I've been asked that twice today."

Yao spoke again.

"Bring me that bag of flour up there, will you?"

"You can't, Yao Yao?" he teased.

He smiled but rolled his eyes "Noo, Ivan I'm tooo short. Please give it to me."

'Oh, that last sentence is too much for me.' the Russian thought to himself and extended his arm to take the bag from the uppermost shelf.

"The knife too, please."

Ivan took the knife that seemed to be the only one and offered it from the sharp side so Yao could take it by the handle. After he took it and thanked him, Ivan positioned himself behind him, and touched his hair ever so slightly with the tip of his fingers.

"Don't you want me to tie your hair as it was before?" he asked and softly took the hand that he had his knife in, which Yao left on the table. Ivan pulled the hair tie from his wrist along his hand and when he had it in his hands, Yao continued cutting. The blond brushed the black hair before putting the hair tie on.

"Hm, red hair-tie, huh?" he noted and stopped touching his ponytail.

"Thanks, Ivan" he smiled, and glanced at the lonesome counter that could be seen through the opening in the kitchen door "You know, I'm not particularly a fan of coffee. I think you already know it, but I prefer tea and much prefer to cook a meal than to bake some cookies here and there."

"Yeah, I knew you liked tea more. In Russia we too drink a lot of it."

"Really?" He realized he didn't know as much about Russian culture as he may had thought he did.

"Da, it's not all vodka you know?" Ivan squinted as he smiled again. After some moments of silence, he turned to look at Yao again. He was silent and motionless.

"Yao?"

"Uh. Yes." he continued cutting parts of dough.

"What happened?" Ivan got closer to him, until he was on his side.

"It's just that your phrase made me remember something."

"What is it?" he touched Yao's shoulder.

"Ah... I really doubt you want to hear it." he said as he looked at Ivan.

"No, Yao, I do want to." he got serious again "Is it something that disturbs you? Because if so it's better if you tell someone."

'Preferably me', Ivan thought to himself. Yao put both his hands on each end of the cutting board and looked at the floor.

"I'll make it short:" he said "It's a bit deeper than this but once a girl entered and she started a conversation with someone else here that I could hear fully. She said that she was homeless, that her parents didn't let her into her house after they knew she was bisexual, and she'd gotten the help of her girlfriend to raise some money so she could eat three times a day."

Ivan looked at the floor for a few seconds. He looked at Yao again and raised an eyebrow "But I don't understand, are you worried about her? Though... Why did what I said remind you of that?"

He looked at Ivan "At some point she said 'life is not all flowers you know?'"

"Oh... I get it." the blond told him. He stared at nothing in particular in front of himself as he imagined it "Just... Stop worrying about that, Yao."

He also seemed to be staring at the nothingness.

It was the perfect excuse for Ivan to get affectionate, so he put his hands around Yao's waist. For him there were moments in which he really couldn't complain if Ivan touched him without permission. He just let him touch his waist and Ivan even got a bit further from him to kiss him on the cheek, and although he could feel Yao's hot skin was turning red on the face, this last one said nothing. He even put one of his hands on Ivan's back.

"I think I heard someone enter." Yao said "I'll be back in a bit."

"Can I get a kiss before you go?" Ivan asked, smiling.

"Of course you can't!" he answered, and when he was at one step of getting out of the kitchen, Ivan spoke again:

"At least let me do the work instead."

"You're not working yet." He turned around to tell him.

"But you've been working too much, Yao."

"I've done nothing for the past two hours."

"Because you've worked for more than five hours today." his face changed again. He was serious. They stared at each other until Ivan started walking out of the kitchen, and went to the counter.


	2. Propaganda

_-Just to clear something up, all the info about the wage, hours, all that kind of stuff I'll be using is based on my own country's laws and whatnot._

* * *

**2. Propaganda**

It was Tuesday, though it soon would be Wednesday, and Ivan's first night working. Having arrived just in time, he approached Yao just after entering.

"Hello!" he said. Yao waved a hand at him. He was placing some bags with coffee beans on the counter that he took from a shelf in the cupboard.

"What have you been doing?" Ivan asked.

Yao answered while emptying another shelf "Nothing really, I was talking to Lien about how the evening shift leaves the kitchen so disorganized."

Ivan saw that he put the bags in the shelf he'd just emptied, swapping the contents on each one.

"We can talk about it with them. It's better to keep a good closeness with the other shifts. Maybe we'll need each other at some point."

Yao closed the cupboard and looked at him.

"Someone's coming" he said.

In fact, it was Mei and she went to the counter in front of Ivan.

"Can you make me a coffee with some milk?" she yawned after asking. She saw Yao behind.

"Hey, where is Lien?" she asked him and looked around to find her coming. Ivan wondered if the two girls could feel each other's presence.

"Hi" Lien smiled to her. Mei held her by the waist and the other tilted her head a bit to the left so they could kiss. Lien placed her hands on Mei's cheeks as she put her hands on Lien's neck.

"Hello" she replied afterward.

Yao stared at them while Ivan was busy making the coffee.

"Is Lien part of your family?" he asked. He placed the paper-covered straw beside the drink.

"No" Yao answered "Mei is."

"I'm his cousin" she told Ivan when she was done kissing Lien, and grabbed the straw to take off the sleeve. She took a sip and frowned, closing her eyes. She turned to look at Ivan. He put some sugar packets on the counter and turned to look at Yao, who looked back.

Maybe one day they'd kiss like Mei and Lien did, even someday in public. Ivan touched Yao's hand. He looked away. Ivan could then stare at the dark hair of Yao, tied again in a ponytail. He wanted to grab it to pull their faces close and kiss him, but maybe it was too soon. There was no need to ruin it in his first, technically second, day.

"Yao" the Russian called in a rather loud whisper, so much that he felt the stares of both girls on him. He improvised a fake cough.

"So" he said "Every hour of work makes... six dollars?"

"It's equivalent to around five dollars." Yao answered.

Ivan frowned and almost took a step back, even removed his hand to make a 'stop' gesture.

"A bit less than three hundred per week, I'd say" Yao continued.

"No, what? Uh-ah, some people get that in an hour!" he said.

Yao looked away again. "You think I've never stopped to think about it?"

"Oh no" Ivan said "I'm sure you have. But have you two tried to do anything about it?"

"We could do it, of course." he said "But I don't think it's worth the risk. Besides, we're only three."

Ivan was about to talk again when he was interrupted by Yao.

"Can we talk for a second, Ivan?" he asked. He almost caught a glimpse of their boss Alfred apparently walking towards the counter. When they both had arrived to the kitchen, Ivan took his hand again.

"This..." Yao started, and shook his head "No, I wanted to tell you that you can't touch me just whenever you want to."

The Russian kept silent after Yao had finished speaking, and was staring at him. He blinked and tilted his head, and the other kept talking.

"Only touch me when I tell you it's okay for you to." Yao said as he removed Ivan's hand from his. Ivan didn't try to take it again, and he nodded.

"Alright"

Yao turned around to leave, but the other spoke again.

"Can I touch you?" he asked.

Making a half-smile, Yao turned to look at him.

"Not right now" he answered, and turned around again.

Ivan repeated the words mentally. «Not _right now_, hm?»

* * *

When they were back, Mei gave a short kiss to Lien, then she left. Ivan rushed to write something on his small notebook, so much that it may have been illegible for anyone besides him. He looked around for a moment to make sure neither Lien nor Yao were looking suspiciously at him.

He continued the previous conversation "Anyway, I can easily convince someone from the other shifts to join me and negotiate with Jones, and be willing to take some other measure if we don't get anywhere."

Yao sighed. "Fine, but I won't be part of it."

"Are you sure?" Ivan insisted "If enough people are involved we can really get somewhere."

"No."

"It's not actually anything extreme."

"No."

"But Yao-"

"No." he finished the conversation.

* * *

It wasn't until a bit past seven AM that someone from the morning shift approached the glass door. Ivan hurried to go to him. The incoming employee, who entered before he spoke, recognized him, as they'd seen each other before.

"Hello, my name is Ivan Braginsky." He introduced himself "I work the graveyard shift."

"I'm Naranbaatar." the other said "I've seen you before around here, I think."

"Oh, that's good" Ivan told him. He extended his arm and Ivan took it to shake hands with him, maintaining eye contact with him. Naranbaatar shook hands and said:

"Alright... So I guess you'll have to go now, right?" He narrowed his eyes as he asked this. Ivan ignored his gesture.

"No" he answered "I want you to join me and get Alfred Jones to pay us more."

Naranbaatar raised an eyebrow and smiled "You're new, right?"

Ivan tilted his head. "Yeah, why?"

"Only thing you're gonna get is fired."

Having taken his uniform off, Yao noticed the conversation and approached them from behind Ivan.

"Ah... Yao." the Mongolian man said before turning to look away from him.

"Naran" Yao called, he crossed his arms "What are you up to?"

"Being late for work" he answered, and tried to make way for himself between the two other men.

"'_Naran_?'" Ivan stopped him with his hands "You two are close?"

"He's my maths tutor." Naranbaatar explained. The Russian turned to look at him.

"I've got to go. I have to be home early today." Yao said as he gave space for Naranbaatar to enter.

Ivan tried to speak to him.

"Can I-"

"Bye!" Yao interrupted and waved at him.

* * *

Even after his turn had finished, Ivan stood in front of Naranbaatar, the counter separating them. On the surface of it, and before saying anything, he took out and unfolded the wrinkled piece of paper.

"Take a look at this" he said.

Naranbaatar took half a second to glance at it, and then stared at him.

"I can't read."

Ivan crinkled the paper again into a ball and looked at the floor. "Oh" he then looked at Naranbaatar "Wait, how well do you already do in maths?"

"I'd say pretty good, why the question?"

"If you decide to get on my side, I could teach you to read and write, yes?" Ivan asked.

Naranbaatar looked up "But read and write what? Russian? You don't know Mongolian."

"I guess English, maybe together we'll be able to get you to write Mongolian in Cyrillic. I'll teach you anything I know as long as I replace Yao as your tutor."

The Russian was sure that making other people take his own side would eventually convince Yao of Ivan's plans, and he would have to go to him too. Though no one was sure, not even Ivan himself, of what those plans exactly were, and what would happen if negotiating didn't work, as foreseen by Naranbaatar.

"I just want to know..." the blond said "Would you be willing to..."

He didn't end the sentence.


End file.
